


Mischief Managed

by gelowo93



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluffy Ending, Harry Potter References, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-08
Updated: 2014-07-08
Packaged: 2018-02-08 00:37:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1920084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gelowo93/pseuds/gelowo93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin had a Harry Potter phase when he was younger; Arthur managed to avoid the phenomenon completely. When Merlin and Arthur are clearing out Merlin's room for when he goes to University, Arthur finds his box of Harry Potter merchandise. Conflict ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mischief Managed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [greenleavesnever](https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenleavesnever/gifts).



> This was written fro greenleaves-never's prompt: Merlin is a big Harry Potter fan and Arthur has never even watched the movies, much less read the books. Conflict ensues. (can be established relationship or get-together or any rating you like. go crazy) 
> 
> This has not been beta'd and any mistakes are my own.

“No, no, no, don’t throw that out!”

Merlin jumped over the half-full bin bags and piles of books and various other things that covered the floor to grab the age-worn teddy out of Arthur’s grasp and put it on the bed – the ‘keeping’ pile.

“But it’s old.”

“You’re old but I still keep you around.”

Arthur rolled his eyes.

“Seriously, why? You’re keeping all those other ones, what’s so special about this one? You don’t still sleep with it do you? When I’m not here?” Frowning at the one eyed dragon, Arthur looked confused and annoyed. Merlin had seen that look before: it was one that Arthur wore whenever he didn’t quite understand what was going on in Merlin’s head. Before they had started dating, Merlin would always catch Arthur looking at him like that out of the corner of his eye, and he had been under the impression that Arthur disliked him, but the truth had come out eventually, and as they got to know each other better, Merlin would see that expression less and less. However, Merlin must have stumped Arthur, because he was looking at Merlin now, waiting for an explanation.

“No, I just want to keep it. I’ve had it since I was a baby, it has sentimental value.”

Merlin briefly caught Arthur’s eye, and then dropped his gaze to his feet, shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

“That’s what you said about the others.” Arthur’s voice had an exasperated tone to it. “I thought the point of sorting your room out was to throw away your old crap.” He gestured to the pile of teddies on the bed.

“Watch what you’re calling crap.” Merlin picked up an old blue bear with stuffing coming out of its ear that Arthur had forced him to put in the ‘throwing out’ pile, and threw it at Arthur’s head. His face broke into a taunting grin as he caught it with one hand, and tossed it back to the pile Merlin had taken it from.

Merlin stared at the pile of old toys on his bed. He couldn’t bring himself to throw them out, but Arthur had a point; he couldn’t keep them all, and it wasn’t fair for them to keep cluttering up his mum’s tiny house when he was at Uni for nine months of the year. His mum would never say anything about it, even though Merlin knew that she wanted to turn his room into a guest room for when Uncle Gaius came to visit, because no matter how much he insisted that their sofa was the comfiest he’d ever seen, Gaius was getting too old to be sleeping on it.

“Okay,” Merlin said, finally. “I’ll get rid of the others if I get to keep that one.”

Arthur nodded, picking up the rest of the toys in a sweep of his arms, and dropping them in a bin bag.

“What’s so special about the dragon?” He was still holding it in his hand. Arthur turned it round so that it was facing him, and started making faces at it.

Merlin watched in amusement, and couldn’t help laughing when Arthur started making roaring noises.

“My dad got it me before he left.”

Arthur’s voice trailed off mid-roar. He looked from Merlin to the dragon in his hand, and set it down on the back, patting it on its head awkwardly. The sudden tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife. Merlin picked at the skin around his fingernails. Arthur grimaced and looked everywhere but at Merlin. It wasn’t that Merlin avoided talking about his dad, he just didn’t come up in conversation often, making it awkward when he did, because neither Merlin nor Arthur knew how to talk about him.

“Right, what’s next?” asked Arthur in an obvious attempt to diffuse the tension that Merlin was grateful for.

“You can start on the boxes under my bed, if you want.”

Wordlessly, Arthur knelt down and started pulling out the storage boxes from under Merlin’s bed. Merlin turned around, going back to sorting out his wardrobe. He had barely thrown two pairs of ripped jeans that he hadn’t worn in _years_ into the black bin bag next to him, when there was an outburst of laughter from behind him.

“ _Really_ , Merlin?”

Arthur was holding up an old doll. It was wearing black robes and had terribly painted on round glasses.

Merlin felt his face heat.

“Oh, come on, I was twelve!”

“I can’t believe you’ve kept all this stuff for this long – look.”

Arthur put the doll back in the box and started pulling out more of Merlin’s old _Harry Potter_ merchandise. There were fake glasses, a toy wand, Ron and Hermione dolls to join Harry, and several boxes of Lego. The more Arthur brought out, the hotter Merlin could feel his face going, and he had to resist the urge to cover his face with his hand.

“I can’t believe I’m dating someone who had a Harry Potter phase,” Arthur said eventually, when he was surrounded by various _Harry Potter_ related things. He was still staring into the box, seemingly amazed that Merlin had managed to collect so much merchandise, and then his face went from bemused to horrified. “Sorry – is still going through a Harry Potter phase.” Arthur pulled out a DVD case, letting Merlin see the front cover; it was the eighth film. “This didn’t come out when you were twelve.”

“I had to get the last one, I had all the others.” Merlin stepped over the piles of things to be thrown out and stopped at Arthur’s side. “Why are you so embarrassed that I liked Harry Potter? Everyone our age does.”

“I don’t.”

Merlin’s jaw dropped.

“What?”

Arthur looked up at him, grinning when he saw Merlin’s expression.

“Never read the books, never watched the films. I managed to steer clear of it.”

“I can’t believe I’m dating someone who doesn’t like Harry Potter,” Merlin said, repeating Arthur’s earlier words.

“Haha. I never understood all the hype, no big deal.”

Merlin stared at Arthur, failing to understand how he could have avoided the phenomenon all the way through their childhood and teenage years.

“But if you never even watched them, how do you know you don’t like it?” Merlin asked. Arthur shrugged.

“The trailers didn’t look that good.”

Merlin’s face, which had cooled while they had been talking, flushed red again. He had spent many nights waiting up until midnight to see the trailers as soon as they were released online, and then would stay up for hours later discussing them on online forums.

“Give me the first DVD,” said Merlin, making a decision on the spot.

“Which one’s that?”

“ _Oh my God, you don’t even know which is the first one,_ ” Merlin groaned. “ _Philosopher’s Stone_. It has the blue background and a bunch of floating heads.”

“I’m worried that you know what the front cover looks like,” Arthur said, but he rummaged through the box until he found the right one and put it in Merlin’s outstretched hand. “There’s only one floating head.”

“It’s the most important head.” Merlin took the DVD and made his way around the obstacle course that was his bedroom to the TV.

“Do I need to be worried about you running away with Daniel Radcliffe?” Arthur had turned back to the box and was starting to look disgusted as he realised just how obsessed Merlin had been.

“No, he’s straight,” Merlin said, waiting for the TV and DVD player to turn on.

“So that’s the only reason why you’re still with me, and not acting out Harry Potter pornos?”

“Yep, sorry.”

“It’s good to know, at least. Wait – what are you doing?”

At that moment, _Hedwig’s Theme_ blasted through the TV speakers, and Merlin hurried to lower the volume.

“I’m not watching it.”

“At least have it on in the background?” Turning round to plead with Arthur, Merlin pulled his best puppy eyes expression at him.

“Oh, fine. Which pile should this box go in?”

“Keep the books and DVDs; you can throw the rest.” Merlin went back to sorting through his wardrobe, humming along with the soundtrack on the film.

“Even your replica Sorting Hat?” Merlin looked over his shoulder and saw Arthur sat with the hat on his head. “GRYFFINDOR!” he shouted, in a poor imitation.

This time, Merlin grabbed a Rubik’s Cube from the pile nearest to him and threw it at Arthur’s head. A loud _ow!_ told Merlin that it had hit it’s mark.

After the first ten minutes, during which Arthur couldn’t help but exclaim loudly about how terrible the special effects are, he managed to keep his complaints to himself, even with Merlin humming along to the soundtrack and mouthing the lines as the actors spoke them. The first time Arthur caught Merlin doing that, he threatened to break up with him. Merlin just smiled at him, and Arthur turned back to the box he was sorting through, muttering under his breath too quietly for Merlin to hear what he was saying.

Merlin had watched the first film so many times that, after some time, he managed to tune it out altogether and focus on what he was supposed to be doing. He didn’t notice when _Philosopher’s Stone_ finished, and Arthur must have got up to change the DVD to _Chamber of Secrets_. Merlin didn’t even turn around when the sounds of Arthur shuffling around boxes and taking things out of them stopped. He only turned around enough to throw clothes onto the throwing-out pile, and didn’t see Arthur sat on the edge of his bed, watching the TV - and definitely not helping to clear Merlin’s bedroom anymore – until Arthur let out a loud “You’re shitting me!”

Merlin put the shirt he had found on the bottom of the wardrobe onto a hanger and into the wardrobe properly, and looked round to see that Arthur had paused the DVD and was staring at Merlin.

“Tom Riddle is Voldemort?”

Merlin frowned. “When did you move onto the second film?”

“About two hours ago,” Arthur said, glancing at his watch. “But really, Tom Riddle is Voldemort?”

“Yes, really, and, hang on –” Merlin’s brain put two and two together. His face broke into a grin. “You’re enjoying it.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Arthur pressed play on the remote and turned his attention back to the TV.

“Yes, you are. You can’t fool me.”

“They’re alright.” Arthur still wasn’t looking at him.

“You couldn’t wait to watch them all, I didn’t even notice you changing the DVD.”

“I’m only giving them a chance because I know you like them so much.”

Merlin went to sit next to Arthur on his bed. They’d been tidying his room all day, and he decided that he was due a break.

“I know. I love you, you big nerd.”

“Shut up, the massive snake’s about to eat Harry.”

Merlin laughed, burying his face in Arthur’s shoulder to muffle the sound.


End file.
